Palliative care

Palliative and End of Life Care

This page is intended for both healthcare professionals and members of the public who may want to use the services or just find out more. It highlights the services available in north east Essex and provides links to other sites that hold useful information including patient leaflets

Palliative care as defined by NICE is the active holistic care of patients with advanced progressive illness. Management of pain and other symptoms and provision of psychological, social and spiritual support is paramount. The goal of palliative care is achievement of the best quality of life for patients and their families. Many aspects of palliative care are also applicable earlier during the illness in conjunction with other treatments.

Palliative care aims to:

Affirm life and regard dying as a normal process
Provide relief from pain and other distressing symptoms
Integrate the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care
Offer a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death
Offer a support system to help the family cope during the patient’s illness and in their own bereavement

End of Life Care as defined by the National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC) is care that helps all those with advanced, progressive, incurable illness to live as well as possible until they die. It enables the supportive and palliative care needs of both patient and family to be identified and met throughout the last phase of life and into bereavement. It includes management of pain and other symptoms and provision of psychological, social, spiritual and practical support.

If you are a patient, carer or medical professional and need help or advice SinglePoint is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on Tel: 01206 890360.

All the Palliative and End of Life provider services in north east Essex work closely together and include GPs, St Helena Hospice (including SinglePoint), Anglian Community Enterprise (which provide Community nursing and Clacton/Harwich Hospitals), Colchester Hospital, and The J's Hospice. Across the area there is access to the End of Life register called ‘My Care Choices’, and this should help deliver the best care and support patient’s choice in every care setting.

Relevant documents can be found in the library. The intended audience for these forms is medical professionals, but we have made these available to the public should they wish to access them.

For more information, please see Palliative Care and End of Life Documents